Word: charter
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...opinion once stated is by necessity an opinion forever defended--and in academia, which is only slightly less afflicted by the cult of the certain. Diane Ravitch, a prominent education historian and former Assistant Secretary of Education, stands at the intersection of the two spheres. Once a proponent of charter schools, standardized testing and merit pay, Ravitch now uses Death and Life to proclaim her ardent opposition to the seemingly unstoppable engine of the education-reform movement, which she believes is too quick to demonize teachers and unions in its attempts to improve the quality of the nation's schools...
...horrors of Nixon's Vietnam War strategy hit Hanks while he was working as a bellman for the Oakland Hilton in the mid-'70s. He was often tasked with shuttling guests to and from the nearby airport. Back then he saw the charter planes that periodically arrived filled with frightened Vietnamese orphans escaping totalitarianism. Once Hanks' movie career took off with Big (1988), he desperately wanted to make a first-class Vietnam War film. But by then, a second wave of Vietnam movies was in full swing (Full Metal Jacket and Good Morning, Vietnam came...
Notable examples of this are the Knowledge is Power Program charter schools in various low-income neighborhoods throughout the country. The KIPP schools give disadvantaged middle school students a unique education by creating an immersive educational environment. Teachers create an intense and fun educational experience from the early years, ensuring that students grow up with a value of academic success and the culture of the school. As detailed in the wonderful book Work Hard, Be Nice, the schools create an environment where scholarly achievement and good character is valued by peers and the community. Communication with parents is frequent...
...Adults All that said, few would argue with the proposition that radical steps are needed to fix the country's public schools. Champions of the turnaround approach say that where it has been applied properly, the early results are encouraging. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has cited Mastery Charter Schools as a shining example of how to right a capsized ship. So far, Mastery has used the same approach at each of the three schools it has taken over from the School District of Philadelphia since 2006: retain the students, spiff up the place, and bring in new teachers and administrators...
...model of wholesale change preferred by turnaround evangelists. But that's another lesson of school reform: half measures are often the best you can do. "There is an opportunity here to fix schools that haven't worked for a long, long time," says Ben Rayer, the chief charter-school liaison for the School District of Philadelphia and former COO of Mastery. "The money and the desire to do so are there now." It's easy to be paralyzed by the enormousness of the task, he adds. "But man, you just gotta start...